Traffic Quality Measurement Apparatus and Method

1. A measurement apparatus for measuring traffic of packets transmitted over a network, the measurement apparatus comprising: an accumulation part for accumulating packet lengths of packets having predetermined header information in successively received packets, and storing an accumulated value of the packet lengths in a storage; a periodic reading part for reading the accumulated value from the storage at predetermined time intervals; and an outputting part for outputting the accumulated value to an external of the measurement apparatus, wherein, by using the accumulated values, the measurement apparatus calculates mean values of traffic volume per a unit time for burst-transfer parts in the packets transmitted over the network and calculates burst-transfer interval times so as to obtain burst characteristics of a packet-flow.

2. The measurement apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the measurement apparatus initializes an area storing the accumulated value in the storage every time the accumulated value is read from the storage.

3. The measurement apparatus as claimed in claim 2 , the measurement apparatus further comprising a real-time interrupt part; wherein the measurement apparatus starts the operation to read the accumulated value and to initialize the area when the real-time interrupt part outputs an interrupt signal.

4. The measurement apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the time interval is no more than one second.

5. The measurement apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the accumulation part extracts header information of a received packet, obtains an address in the storage corresponding to the header information from a table including the address associated with the header information, and stores the accumulated value in an area corresponding to the address.

6. The measurement apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the outputting part comprises a display part for displaying the accumulated value or a value obtained by processing the accumulated value.

7. The measurement apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the outputting part comprises a sending part for sending the accumulated value or a value obtained by processing the accumulated value to another apparatus over the network.

8. The measurement apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , the measurement apparatus further comprising: a reference data storing part for storing reference data beforehand; and a reference data comparing part for comparing the reference data with a measurement result obtained by the measurement apparatus.

9. The measurement apparatus as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the reference data comparing part obtains differences between the measurement result and the reference data.

10. A measurement method used in a measurement apparatus for measuring traffic of packets transmitted over a network, the measurement method comprising the steps of: accumulating packet lengths of packets having predetermined header information in successively received packets, and storing an accumulated value of the packet lengths in a storage; reading the accumulated value from the storage at predetermined time intervals; by using the accumulated values, calculating mean values of traffic volume per a unit time for burst-transfer parts in the packets transmitted over the network and calculating burst-transfer interval times so as to obtain burst characteristics of a packet-flow; and outputting the accumulated value to an external of the measurement apparatus.

11. The measurement method as claimed in claim 10 , the measurement method further comprising the step of initializing an area storing the accumulated value in the storage every time the accumulated value is read from the storage.

12. The measurement method as claimed in claim 11 , the measurement apparatus comprising a real-time interrupt part; and the measurement method comprising the step of starting the operation to read the accumulated value and to initialize the area when the real-time interrupt part outputs an interrupt signal.

13. The measurement method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein the time interval is no more than one second.

14. The measurement method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein, in the step of storing the accumulated value in the storage, the measurement apparatus extracts header information of a received packet, obtains an address in the storage corresponding to the header information from a table including the address associated with the header information, and stores the accumulated value in an area corresponding to the address.

15. The measurement method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein the outputting step comprises the step of displaying the accumulated value or a value obtained by processing the accumulated value.

16. The measurement method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein the outputting step comprises the step of sending the accumulated value or a value obtained by processing the accumulated value to another apparatus over the network.

17. The measurement method as claimed in claim 10 , the measurement method further comprising the step of comparing reference data with a measurement result obtained by the measurement apparatus.

18. The measurement-method as claimed in claim 17 , wherein the measurement apparatus obtains differences between the measurement result and the reference data in the step of comparing.